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A Board of Selectmen is a common executive arm of a town's government in New England. The board may be comprised of three or five members with staggered terms.
Boards of Selectmen were the child of necessity. When small towns grew too large for their people to run them efficiently, they would elect this executive board of, literally, select(ed) men to run the town for them. These men were in charge of the day-to-day operations of the town, and served as everything from CEO to policeman to poundkeeper.
The larger towns grew, the more distributed power would become among other elected boards. In many towns today, the part-time Board of Selectmen is largely ceremonial, with most of its powers entrusted to a full-time Town Administrator or Town Manager.
See also: Town meeting
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